Liesl's Blog > Whimsical Guide Words

Whimsical Guide Word Pairs

In Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary

Open any dictionary to any page, glance at the top, and you'll see a pair of guide words: those helpful labels that tell you which words appear first and last on that particular page.

Guide words are a reference tool, a meaningless pair of terms. But sometimes those pairings surprise us.

Below are 19 whimsical pairs of guide words from my beloved copy of Webster's Ninth. These pairs mean nothing. Still, they exist in print and I love them.

1. Because driving and cream cheese don't mix:


2. It's gonna get hairy:


3. Maybe we should take the tank this time:


4. Probably the best way to do this:


5. Make it look like an accident:


6. Draining the life from my sentence:


7. On a 10-mile hike? Say no more:


8. This, too, sounds uncomfortable:


9. Well, they work indoors:


10. Located in Humdinger, TX:


11. Y'all go ahead, I'm good:


12. It's just not the same now:


13. Less classy than the one down by the tracks:


14. Thanks to her, you can just use SPSS:


15. Ladies only, please:


16. 10 frames of Dawg vs. Boba Fett:


17. Life of the D&D party:


18. Spoiler, it was dried gum and not a quarter:


19. Cruel spelling bee headline:

(Was it the headline that was cruel, or the spelling bee itself? Whiz kid reported, "Both.")




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